Karen Tintori knew she'd be a writer from age twelve. As a child, she walked ten blocks to the public library, checked out as many books as she could carry between her interlocked fingers and her chin, read them quickly and returned for another stack.

Before she was thirteen, she'd read the entire children's section and bristled when the librarians would not permit her to borrow books from the adult section until she was of age. Patience was a lesson she'd begin to learn early--the librarians invited her, instead, to re-read the children's section.

Is your book club reading one of Karen's books? Feel free to drop her a note to arrange a phone or Skype call to join your group's discussion. Karen loves hearing from her readers, enjoys traveling to meet them, and welcomes speaking invitations.

Fourteen years after learning about my great-aunt Francesca, I drove out to the island where she was murdered with Detroit News reporter, Susan Whitall. The News' videographer, David Coates, and photographer, Donna Terek, recorded the emotional visit to Detroit's Belle Isle -- my first in more than two decades.

Whitall's front-page story, which appeared in The Detroit News on November 10, 2007, is reprinted below, with the permission of The Detroit News. You may also access the story, together with the accompanying video and photo gallery directly from The Detroit News site.

I am delighted that Unto the Daughters has been nominated as a 2008 Michigan Notable Book. Each year The State Library of Michigan honors twenty books -- either written by a Michigan author or else Michigan-based in theme or subject matter -- with this special designation.

Unto the Daughters has been nominated as a 2008 Michigan Notable Book. Each year The State Library of Michigan honors twenty books -- either written by a Michigan author or else Michigan-based in theme or subject matter -- with this special designation.

My newest book of narrative nonfiction, Unto the Daughters: The Legacy of an Honor Killing in a Sicilian-American Family,will be published by St. Martin's Press in hardcover on July 24, 2007. It is the harrowing true story of a family secret held for more than eight decades.

Advance reviews have been terrific:

"Switching back and forth between rural Sicily and early 20th century Detroit,Unto the Daughters reads like a nonfiction version of the film Godfather II--if it had been told from the point of view of a female Corleone.

Karen and Jill's German publisher, Rowohlt, and Family Leisure Club in Russia are the first foreign publishers to buy translation rights for their upcoming hidden history thriller, The Illumination.

The story centers on Natalie Landau, a museum curator who fights to learn who murdered her reporter sister in Iraq - and battles powerful sources pursuing the mysterious gift her sister, Dana, sent her before she died - a biblical treasure from the dawn of time with the power to transform - or destroy - the world.

St Martin's plans to publish The Illumination in hardcover in June, 2008.

Das Buch der Namen is still a firm fixture on the German bestseller list, nineteen weeks after Rowohlt first published their edition of The Book of Names in December, 2006. Vielen Dank to all the German fans!